NQF endorses performance measures and practices as voluntary consensus standards. Interested stewards and/or developers of measures or practices may submit their standards for consideration by NQF.
The Composite Framework and Measures report is now available. Read the report.
Online Measure Submission
To submit a measure, a steward must complete and electronically submit the online measure submission form for each measure they wish to submit to NQF for consideration.
NQF is now using an online Measure Submission Form, Version5.0. The new online submission form includes a variety of new features and allows the user to:
- Gain secure access to the submission form from any location with an internet connection;
- Save a draft version of the form and return to complete it at his or her convenience; and
- Print a hard copy of the submission form for reference.
To review the questions included in the measure submission form, a print view of the online form (PDF) is available. For more information on the function of the online submission from, please consult the Users' Guide to NQF's Online Measure Submission Form (PDF). To review some examples of the type of information NQF is seeking in the measure submission, review the related information for examples for evidence and measure testing.
Measure Evaluation
NQF evaluates measures against four standardized Measure Evaluation Criteria: Importance to Measure and Report (PDF), Scientific Acceptability of Measure Properties (PDF), Usability and Feasibility (PDF), and Composite Evaluation Criteria (PDF). Information regarding the criteria as well as guidance documents can be found on the Measure Evaluation Criteria page.
Open Submission Process
Measure developers are now able to begin a measure submission at any time:
Submit Your Measure Now
The purpose of providing the online submission form unrelated to a particular project is to give measure developers another venue to indicate readiness to NQF, regardless of topic. It also increases NQF's awareness and knowledge of what measures are in the measure development pipeline.
Please note: Using the online submission form to indicate "readiness" of a measure to NQF is not a formal submission of your measure to NQF for consideration of endorsement. NQF staff will work with each developer to identify upcoming projects for which the measure may be appropriate and discuss next steps to enable submission of the measure.
Call for Candidate Standards
In advance of most consensus development projects, NQF issues a formal call for candidate standards. Customarily, NQF issues calls for measures and calls for practices; calls for other types of standards may be issued as needed. Based upon the scope and objective of the consensus development project, NQF may initially issue a call for practices, and issue a subsequent call for measures at a later date.
Practices
To submit a practice, a steward must complete and electronically submit the following form for each practice that they submit to NQF for consideration:
If the standard to be submitted is not in the public domain, the steward must also complete and submit the following form:
Related and Competing Measures
Issues around harmonizing measures and handling competing measures remains one of the key challenges in NQF measure endorsement projects. NQF has recently developed a new work process to ensure harmonization and competing measures issues are adequately addressed within the CDP. These new enhancements build upon prior NQF work specifically, Guidance for Measure Harmonization Consensus Report and the Guidance on Competing Measures and Selection of the Best Measure.
Check out the changes to NQF’s harmonization and competing measures process.
